Pacific Ecologist

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Articles from No. 18, Winter

24 October 2009: 350.org-Make It a Safe Climate Day!-350.Org.Nz: No More Than 350 Parts per Million Is the Safe Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere for the Planet. We Are Currently at 390 and Rising

On 24 October 2009, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety....

Altruistic Economics: The Gift Culture and End of the Culture of Extinction

"The ability to govern without overt coercion depends largely on the ability of those in power to exploit systems of belief that the larger population shares."--Antonio Gramsci With serious global crises appearing on many fronts it's clear our current...

Not long ago the world was accessible to everyone, say IVAN ILLICH and JEAN ROBERT and freedom was not a commodity. But a powerful spell was cast over people creating the fantasy of the car as liberator. Now our freedom of movement is limited by traffic...

Our window of opportunity to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at low levels is closing fast, reports Dr ANDY REISINGER. If economic recovery over the next few years is fuelled by investments in carbon-intensive infrastructure, it will slam the...

BENJAMIN K. SOVACOOL explores the justification behind Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) in promoting development and use of renewable energy and their advantages over other mechanisms. Everyone wins with Feed-in-Tariffs and every Kilowatt hour of energy from...

Dr Ian Prior-A Very Public Physician, Activist, Humanitarian and Supporter of the Arts: Peter Isaac Recounts the Life and Achievements of a Very Special New Zealander

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dr Ian Prior, who died at 85 in Wellington in February 2009 was for 50 years a public figure in a variety of quite different spheres: public health, art, music, environment and humanitarian causes. He joined the National Press...

Take action now on climate change, don't feel helpless, says Dr ARYAN TAVAKKOLI. With a climate tipping point fast approaching, the quickest way to personally cut warming emissions and most effective means to prevent climate catastrophe is to eliminate...

Energy Independence: Indigenous Oil Fields of the Pacific: Pacific Island Countries Could Finance Their Energy Security and Energy Independence through Carbon Credit Markets, with Projects to Develop Their Indigenous Coconut Plantations into a Viable Energy Source for Electricity and Transport

Climate change is a major challenge for many Pacific Island nations, and much effort will be directed into financing and implementing adaptation strategies to cope with sea-level rise, changing precipitation patterns, and shifting storm intensities....

16/04/09, Mongabay.com--Rising temperatures could reverse the role forests play in mitigating climate change, turning them into net sources of greenhouse gases, notes a new assessment by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)....

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Civilisation, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate reduction of wants. This alone promotes real happiness and contentment, and increases the capacity for service. --from...

Hunter-gatherers have few possessions and are the lowest energy consumers, reports Marshall Sahlins, yet they are the original affluent society with material needs easily met in a few short hours a week. Paradoxically, in the 21st century's market...

Indigenous Peoples Struggle to Survive in the Battle for Dwindling Resources

Arizona: The Navajo nation is fighting uranium mining through the US courts. Radiation levels are 450 times the normal levels. Other uranium mines are opposed by indigenous groups in Australia, India, Canada, Niger and Botswana. Botswana: The Bushmen...

"If I preach against the modern life of sensual enjoyment, and urge all men and women to go back to the simple life epitomised in the charka, I do so because I know without an intelligent return to simplicity, there is no escape from our descent to...

How can we bring about a safe climate when inaction for too long has allowed atmospheric carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) levels to rise to 390 parts per million (ppm)? If the effects of other greenhouse gases are included, the atmospheric warming potential...

Millions of people around the world are hungry and without access to clean water while livestock consume grain, water and land for the meat market, reports ALYN WARE. A change from meat eating to a vegetarian diet, besides having health benefits, will...

11/06/09, Oxfam New Zealand--A new report launched today could help break the deadlock at the heart of the UN climate talks currently underway in Bonn, Germany. The Oxfam report, Hang Together or Separately? How Global Cooperation is Key to a Fair...

Global sustainability and justice can only be achieved through something like the inspiring Transition Towns movement, but thought needs to be given to key issues or the movement might fail to achieve its goals, suggests TED TRAINER. Unless the movement...

Token Environmental Policy Continues in Australia: Australians Elected the Rudd Government in the Hope It Would Protect the Environment and Take Action on Global Warming, DR SHARON BEDER Notes, but Instead It Is Promoting an Emissions Trading Scheme, despite Evidence This Will Achieve Little Apart from Higher Prices for Consumers

When Australians went to the polls in November 2007 they voted for the party willing to acknowledge the threat of global warming and promising to do something about it. Yet the Rudd government seems to be interested in little more than symbolic gestures...

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Villagers in Morobe Province held festivities in April 2009 to celebrate the creation of Papua New Guinea's first Conservation Area protecting an important area of pristine tropical forest, where one of Earth's unique, threatened...

Walking Restores the World and Humanity: Modern Societies' Obsession with Speed and Mechanical Forms of Transport Alienates Humanity from Nature and from Each Other, Reports Bill Bunn. Walking Restores Our Humanity, Frees Our Minds and Is What Our Planet Expects of Us

30/03/09 Culture Change--There is only one way humans are made to move. They are basically made to walk. There are many other ways to get around. You can canoe, for instance, or paraglide, or jog or swim. But these transport modes are not the staple...